Michael Faraday Third Edition with Portrait by J H Gladstone PhD FRS

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Title: Michael Faraday
Third Edition, with Portrait

Author: J. H. Gladstone

Release Date: November 19, 2014 [EBook #47396]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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Transcriber's Notes:

This book contains Macmillan & Co.'s September 1874 book catalogue, which follows the index for the main book.
Additional Transcriber's Notes are at the end.

MICHAEL FARADAY.

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Macmillan & Co. Logo

Michael Faraday Portrait

Michael Faraday

From a Photograph by John Watkins. 34 Parliament Street.

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Title Page

MICHAEL FARADAY.

BY

J. H. GLADSTONE, Ph.D., F.R.S.

THIRD EDITION, WITH PORTRAIT.

London:

M AC M I L L AN AN D C O .

1874.

[The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.]

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LONDON:

R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,

BREAD STREET HILL.

PREFACE.

Shortly after the death of Michael Faraday, Professor Auguste de la Rive, and others of his friends, gave to the world
their impressions of his life, his character, and his work; Professor Tyndall drew his portrait as a man of science; and
after a while Dr. Bence Jones published his biography in two octavo volumes, with copious extracts from his journals
and correspondence. In a review of this "Life and Letters" I happened to mention my thought of giving to the public
some day my own reminiscences of the great philosopher; several friends urged me to do so, not in the pages of a
magazine, but in the form of a little book designed for those of his fellow-countrymen who venerate his noble character
without being able to follow his scientific researches. I accepted the task. Professor Tyndall and Dr. Bence Jones, with
Messrs. Longman, the publishers, kindly permitted me to make free use of their materials; but I am indebted to the
Corporation of the Trinity House, and to many friends, for a good deal of additional information; and in compiling my
book I have preferred, where practicable, to illustrate the character of Faraday by documents or incidents hitherto
unpublished, or contained in those sketches of the philosopher which are less generally known.
It is due to myself to say that I had pretty well sketched out the second part of this book before I read M. Dumas'
"Eloge Historique." The close similarity of my analysis of Professor Faraday's character with that of the illustrious
French chemist may perhaps be accepted as an additional warrant for the correctness of our independent estimates.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

The very favourable reception which my book has met with, both from the press and the public, seems to call for my
grateful acknowledgment on the issue of a second edition.
In revising the former, I have added some further particulars about Faraday, especially in regard to "his method of
working;" and an engraving from a photograph by Watkins, which best recalls to my recollection the features and the
usual expression of the genial philosopher.

CONTENTS.

SECT.
PAGE

I.—The Story of his Life
1

II.—Study of his Character
60

III.—Fruits of his Experience
94

IV.—His Method of Working
123

V.—The Value of his Discoveries
146

Supplementary Portraits
167

Appendix:—List of Honorary Fellowships, etc.
173

Index
176

M I C H A E L FA R A D AY.

SECTION I.

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[1]

THE STORY OF HIS LIFE.

At the beginning of this century, in the neighbourhood of Manchester Square, London, there was an inquisitive boy
running about, playing at marbles, and minding his baby-sister. He lived in Jacob's Well Mews, close by, and was
learning the three R's at a common day-school. Few passers-by would have noticed him, and none certainly would
have imagined that this boy, as he grew up, was to achieve the truest success in life, and to die honoured by the great,
the wise, and the good. Yet so it was; and to tell the story of his life, to trace the sources of this success, and to depict
some of the noble results of his work, are the objects of this biographical sketch.
It was not at Jacob's Well Mews, but in Newington Butts, that the boy had been born, on September 22, 1791, and his
parents, James and Margaret Faraday, had given this, their third child, the unusual name of Michael. The father was a
journeyman blacksmith, a skilful workman who, in spite of poverty and feeble health, strove to bring up his children in
habits of industry and the love of God.
Of course young Michael must soon do something for his living. There happened to be a bookseller's shop in Blandford
Street, a few doors from the entrance to the Mews, kept by a Mr. Riebau, an intelligent man, who is said to have had a
leaning to astrology; and there he went as errand boy when thirteen years old. Many a weary walk he had, carrying
round newspapers to his master's customers; but he did his work faithfully; and so, after a twelvemonth, the bookseller
was willing to take him as an apprentice, and that without a premium.
Now, a boy in a bookseller's shop can look at the inside as well as the outside of the books he handles, and young
Faraday took advantage of his position, and fed on such intellectual food as Watts's "Improvement of the Mind," Mrs.
Marcet's "Conversations on Chemistry," and the article on "Electricity" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, besides such
lighter dishes as Miss Burney's "Evelina;" nor can we doubt that when he was binding Lyons' "Experiments on
Electricity," and Boyle's "Notes about the Producibleness of Chymicall Principles," he looked beyond the covers.[1]
And his thirst for knowledge did not stop with reading: he must see whether Mrs. Marcet's statements were correct,
and so, to quote his own words, "I made such simple experiments in chemistry as could be defrayed in their expense by
a few pence per week, and also constructed an electrical machine, first with a glass phial, and afterwards with a real
cylinder, as well as other electrical apparatus of a corresponding kind."
He kept too a note-book called "The Philosophical Miscellany," intended, he tells us, "to promote both amusement and
instruction, and also to corroborate or invalidate those theories which are continually starting into the world of science;"
and miscellaneous indeed were the scraps he gathered from the magazines of the time.
One day, early in 1810, walking somewhere in the neighbourhood of Fleet Street, he saw in a shop-window a bill
announcing that lectures on natural philosophy were delivered by Mr. Tatum, at 53, Dorset Street, at eight in the
evening, price of admission one shilling. He wanted to hear these lectures. His master's permission was obtained, but
where was the money to come from? The needful shillings were given him by his elder brother, Robert, who earned
them as a blacksmith; and so Michael Faraday made his first acquaintance with scientific lectures. And not with lectures
only, for Tatum's house was frequented by other earnest students, and lifelong friendships were formed. Among these
students was Benjamin Abbott, a young Quaker, who had received a good education, and had then a situation in a City
house as confidential clerk. With him Faraday chatted on philosophy or anything else, and happily for us he chatted on
paper, in letters of that fulness and length which the penny post and the telegraph have well-nigh driven out of existence;
and happily for us, too, Abbott kept those letters, and Dr. Bence Jones has published them. They are wonderful letters
for a poor bookseller's apprentice; they bear the stamp of an innate gentleman and philosopher.
Long afterwards, when Benjamin Abbott was an old man, he used to tell how Faraday made his first experiments in the
kitchen of his house, and delivered his first lecture from the end of that kitchen table. The electrical machine made by
him in those early days came into the possession of Sir James South, and now forms one of the treasures of the Royal
Institution.
As the eager student drank in the lectures of Tatum, he took notes, and he afterwards wrote them out carefully in a
clear hand, numbering and describing the different experiments that he saw performed, and making wonderfully neat
drawings of the apparatus, in good perspective. These notes he bound in four volumes, adding to each a copious index,
and prefixing to the first this dedication to his master:—

"To Mr. G. Riebau.

"Sir,
"When first I evinced a predilection for the sciences, but more particularly for that one denominated
electricity, you kindly interested yourself in the progress I made in the knowledge of facts relating to the
different theories in existence, readily permitting me to examine those books in your possession that were
in any way related to the subjects then occupying my attention. To you, therefore, is to be attributed the
rise and existence of that small portion of knowledge relating to the science which I possess, and
accordingly to you are due my acknowledgments.
"Unused to the arts of flattery, I can only express my obligations in a plain but sincere way. Permit me,
therefore, Sir, to return thanks in this manner for the many favours I have received at your hands and by
your means and believe me,

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"Your grateful and obedient Servant,

"M. Faraday."

Now there happened to be lodging at Mr. Riebau's a notable foreigner of the name of Masquerier. He was a
distinguished artist, who had painted Napoleon's portrait, and had passed through the stirring events of the first French
Revolution, not without serious personal danger, and was now finding a refuge and a home in London. He was struck
with the intelligence of the apprentice, whose duty it was to do various offices for him; and he lent the young man his
books, and taught him how to make the drawings in perspective which have already been alluded to.
But the lectures in Dorset Street were not the only ones that Michael Faraday attended; and as the Royal Institution is
the central scene of all his subsequent history, we must pay a mental visit to that building. Turning from the busy stream
of Piccadilly into the quiet of Albemarle Street, we see, in a line with the other houses, a large Grecian façade with
fourteen lofty pilasters. Between these are folding doors, which are pushed open from time to time by grave-looking
gentlemen, many of them white-headed; but often of an afternoon, and always on Friday evening during the season, the
quiet street is thronged with carriages and pedestrians, ladies and gentlemen, who flock through these folding doors.
Entering with them, we find ourselves in a vestibule, with a large stone staircase in front, and rooms opening on the right
and left. The walls of these rooms are lined with myriads of books, and the tables are covered with scientific and other
periodicals of the day, and there are cabinets of philosophical apparatus and a small museum. Going up the broad
staircase and turning to the right, we pass through an ante-room to the lecture theatre. There stands the large table,
horseshoe-shaped, with the necessary appliances for experiments, and behind it a furnace and arrangements for black-
board and diagrams; while round the table as a centre range semicircular seats, rising tier above tier, and surmounted by
a semicircular gallery, the whole capable of seating 700 persons. On the basement is a new chemical laboratory, fitted
up with modern appliances, and beyond it the old laboratory, with its furnaces and sand-bath, its working tables and
well-stored shelves, flanked by cellars that look like dark lumber-rooms. A narrow private staircase leads up to the
suite of apartments in which resides the Director of the house. Such is the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
incorporated by Royal Charter in the year 1800, "for the diffusing knowledge and facilitating the general introduction of
useful mechanical inventions and improvements, and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments,
the application of science to the common purposes of life;"—with the motto, "Illustrans commoda vitæ." Fifty or sixty
years ago the building was essentially what it is now, except the façade and entrance, and that the laboratory, which
was considered a model of perfection, was even darker than at present, and in the place of the modern chemical room
there was a small theatre. The side room, too, was fitted up for actual work, though even at mid-day it had to be
artificially lighted; and beyond this there was, and still is, a place called the Froggery, from a certain old tradition of frogs
having been kept there. The first intention of the founders to exhibit useful inventions had not been found very
practicable, but the place was already famous with the memories of Rumford and Young; and at that time the genius of
Sir Humphry Davy was entrancing the intellectual world with brilliant discoveries, and drawing fashionable audiences to
Albemarle Street to listen to his eloquent expositions.
Among the customers of the bookseller in Blandford Street was a Mr. Dance, who, being a member of the Royal
Institution, took young Faraday to hear the last four public lectures of Davy. The eager student sat in the gallery, just
over the clock, and took copious notes of the Professor's explanations of radiant matter, chlorine, simple inflammables,
and metals, while he watched the experiments that were performed. Afterwards he wrote the lectures fairly out in a
quarto volume, that is still preserved—first the theoretical portions, then the experiments with drawings, and finally an
index. "The desire to be engaged in scientific occupation, even though of the lowest kind, induced me," he says, "whilst
an apprentice, to write, in my ignorance of the world and simplicity of my mind, to Sir Joseph Banks, then President of
the Royal Society. Naturally enough, 'No answer' was the reply left with the porter."
On the 7th of October his apprenticeship expired, and on the next day he became a journeyman bookbinder under a
disagreeable master—who, like his friend the artist, was a French émigré. No wonder he sighed still more for congenial
occupation.
Towards the end of that same October Sir Humphry Davy was working on a new liquid which was violently explosive,
now known as chloride of nitrogen,—and he met with an accident that seriously injured his eye, and produced an attack
of inflammation. Of course, for a while he could not write, and, possibly through the introduction of M. Masquerier,[2]
the young bookseller was employed as his amanuensis. This, however, Faraday himself tells us lasted only "some days;"
and in writing years afterwards to Dr. Paris, he says, "My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and
selfish, and to enter into the service of Science, which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at
last to take the bold and simple step of writing to Sir H. Davy, expressing my wishes, and a hope that, if an opportunity
came in his way, he would favour my views; at the same time I sent the notes I had taken of his lectures." Davy, it
seems, called with the letter on one of his friends—at that time honorary inspector of the models and apparatus—and
said, "Pepys, what am I to do? Here is a letter from a young man named Faraday; he has been attending my lectures,
and wants me to give him employment at the Royal Institution—what can I do?" "Do?" replied Pepys; "put him to wash
bottles: if he is good for anything, he will do it directly; if he refuses, he is good for nothing." "No, no," replied Davy, "we
must try him with something better than that."
So Davy wrote a kind reply, and had an interview with the young man upon the subject; in which, however, he advised
him to stick to his business, telling him that "Science was a harsh mistress, and, in a pecuniary point of view, but poorly
rewarding those who devoted themselves to her service." He promised him the work of the Institution, and his own
besides.

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But shortly afterwards the laboratory assistant was discharged for misconduct, and so it happened that one night the
inhabitants of quiet Weymouth Street were startled by the unusual apparition of a grand carriage with a footman, which
drew up before the house where Faraday lived, when the servant left a note from Sir Humphry Davy. The next morning
there was an interview, which resulted in the young aspirant for scientific work being engaged to help the famous
philosopher. His engagement dates from March 1, 1813, and he was to get 25s. per week, and a room in the house.
The duties had been previously laid down by the managers:—"To attend and assist the lecturers and professors in
preparing for, and during lectures. Where any instruments or apparatus may be required, to attend to their careful
removal from the model room and laboratory to the lecture-room, and to clean and replace them after being used;
reporting to the managers such accidents as shall require repair, a constant diary being kept by him for that purpose.
That in one day in each week he be employed in keeping clean the models in the repository, and that all the instruments
in the glass cases be cleaned and dusted at least once within a month."
The young assistant did not confine himself to the mere discharge of these somewhat menial duties. He put in order the
mineralogical collection; and from the first we find him occupying a higher position than the minute quoted above would
indicate.
In the course of a few days he was extracting sugar from beet-root; but all his laboratory proceedings were not so
pleasant or so innocent as that, for he had to make one of the worst smelling of all chemical compounds, bisulphide of
carbon; and as Davy continued to work on the explosive chloride of nitrogen, his assistant's career stood some chance
of being suddenly cut short at its commencement. Indeed it seems that before the middle of April he had run the gauntlet
of four separate explosions. Knowing that the liquid would go off on the slightest provocation, the experimenters wore
masks of glass, but this did not save them from injury. In one case Faraday was holding a small tube containing a few
grains of it between his finger and thumb, and brought a piece of warm cement near it, when he was suddenly stunned,
and on returning to consciousness found himself standing with his hand in the same position, but torn by the shattered
tube, and the glass of his mask even cut by the projected fragments. Nor was it easy to say when the compound could
be relied on, for it seemed very capricious; for instance, one day it rose quietly in vapour in a tube exhausted by the air-
pump, but the next day, when subjected to the same treatment, it exploded with a fearful noise, and Sir Humphry was
cut about the chin, and was struck with violence on the forehead. This seems to have put an end to the experiments.
Nevertheless, in spite of disagreeables and dangers, the embryo philosopher worked on with a joyful heart, beguiling
himself occasionally with a song, and in the evening playing tunes on his flute.
The change in Michael Faraday's employment naturally made him more earnest still in the pursuit of knowledge. He was
admitted as a member of the "City Philosophical Society," a fraternity of thirty or forty men in the middle or lower ranks
of life, who met every Wednesday evening for mutual instruction; and here is a contemporary picture of him at one of its
debates:—

"But hark! A voice arises near the chair!
Its liquid sounds glide smoothly through the air;
The listening muse with rapture bends to view
The place of speaking, and the speaker too.
Neat was the youth in dress, in person plain;
His eye read thus, Philosopher in grain;
Of understanding clear, reflection deep;
Expert to apprehend, and strong to keep.
His watchful mind no subject can elude,
Nor specious arts of sophists e'er delude;
His powers, unshackled, range from pole to pole;
His mind from error free, from guilt his soul.
Warmth in his heart, good humour in his face,
A friend to mirth, but foe to vile grimace;
A temper candid, manners unassuming,
Always correct, yet always unpresuming.
Such was the youth, the chief of all the band;
His name well known, Sir Humphry's right hand.
With manly ease towards the chair he bends,
With Watts's Logic at his finger-ends."

Another way in which he strove to educate himself is thus described in his own words:—"During this spring Magrath
and I established the mutual improvement plan, and met at my rooms up in the attics of the Royal Institution, or at
Wood Street at his warehouse. It consisted, perhaps, of half-a-dozen persons, chiefly from the City Philosophical
Society, who met of an evening to read together, and to criticise, correct, and improve each other's pronunciation and
construction of language. The discipline was very sturdy, the remarks very plain and open, and the results most
valuable. This continued for several years."
Seven months after his appointment there began a new passage in Faraday's life, which gave a fresh impulse to his
mental activity, and largely extended his knowledge of men and things. Sir Humphry Davy, wishing to travel on the
Continent, and having received a special pass from the Emperor Napoleon, offered to take him as his amanuensis: he

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accepted the proposal, and for a year and a half they wandered about France, Italy, and Switzerland, and then they
returned rapidly by the Tyrol, Germany, and Holland.
From letters written when abroad we can catch some of the impressions made on his mind by these novel scenes. "I
have not forgot," he writes to Abbott, "and never shall forget, the ideas that were forced on my mind in the first days.
To me, who had lived all my days of remembrance in London, a city surrounded by a flat green country, a hill was a
mountain, and a stone a rock; for though I had abstract ideas of the things, and could say rock and mountain, and
would talk of them, yet I had no perfect ideas. Conceive then the astonishment, the pleasure, and the information which
entered my mind in the varied county of Devonshire, where the foundations of the earth were first exposed to my view,
and where I first saw granite, limestone, &c., in those places and in those forms where the ever-working and all-
wonderful hand of nature had placed them. Mr. Ben., it is impossible you can conceive my feelings, and it is as
impossible for me to describe them. The sea then presented a new source of information and interest; and on
approaching the shores of France, with what eagerness, and how often, were my eyes directed to the South! When
arrived there, I thought myself in an uncivilized country; for never before nor since have I seen such wretched beings as
at Morlaix." His impression of the people was not improved by the fact of their having arrested the travellers on landing,
and having detained them for five days until they had sent to Paris for verification of their papers.
Again, to her towards whom his heart was wont to turn from distant lands with no small longing: "I have said nothing as
yet to you, dear mother, about our past journey, which has been as pleasant and agreeable (a few things excepted, in
reality nothing) as it was possible to be. Sir H. Davy's high name at Paris gave us free admission into all parts of the
French dominions, and our passports were granted with the utmost readiness. We first went to Paris, and stopped there
two months; afterwards we passed, in a southerly direction, through France to Montpellier, on the borders of the
Mediterranean. From thence we went to Nice, stopping a day or two at Aix on our way; and from Nice we crossed the
Alps to Turin, in Piedmont. From Turin we proceeded to Genoa, which place we left afterwards in an open boat, and
proceeded by sea towards Lerici. This place we reached after a very disagreeable passage, and not without
apprehensions of being overset by the way. As there was nothing there very enticing, we continued our route to
Florence; and, after a stay of three weeks or a month, left that fine city, and in four days arrived here at Rome. Being
now in the midst of things curious and interesting, something arises every day which calls for attention and observations.
The relics of ancient Roman magnificence, the grandeur of the churches, and their richness also—the difference of habits
and customs, each in turn engages the mind, and keeps it continually employed. Florence, too, was not destitute of its
attractions for me, and in the Academy del Cimento and the museum attached to it is contained an inexhaustible fund of
entertainment and improvement; indeed, during the whole journey, new and instructive things have been continually
presented to me. Tell B. I have crossed the Alps and the Apennines; I have been at the Jardin des Plantes; at the
museum arranged by Buffon; at the Louvre, among the chefs d'œuvre of sculpture and the masterpieces of painting; at
the Luxembourg Palace, amongst Rubens' works; that I have seen a Glowworm!!! waterspouts, torpedo, the museum
at the Academy del Cimento, as well as St. Peter's, and some of the antiquities here, and a vast variety of things far too
numerous to enumerate."
But he kept a lengthy journal, and as we turn over the pages—for the best part of it is printed by Bence Jones—we
meet vivid sketches of the provokingly slow custom-house officers, the postilion in jack-boots, and the thin pigs of
Morlaix—pictures of Paris, too, when every Frenchman was to him an unintelligible enemy; when the Apollo Belvidere,
the Venus de Medici, and the Dying Gladiator were at the Louvre, and when the First Napoleon visited the Senate in
full state. "He was sitting in one corner of his carriage, covered and almost hidden from sight by an enormous robe of
ermine, and his face overshadowed by a tremendous plume of feathers that descended from a velvet hat." We watch Sir
Humphry as Ampère and others bring to him the first specimens of iodine, and he makes experiments with his travelling
apparatus on the dark lustrous crystals and their violet vapour; we seem, too, to be present with the great English
chemist and his scholar as they burn diamonds at Florence by means of the Grand Duke's gigantic lens, and prove that
the invisible result is carbonic acid; or as they study the springs of inflammable gas at Pietra Mala, and the molten
minerals of Vesuvius. The whole, too, is interspersed with bits of fun, and this culminates at the Roman Carnival, where
he evidently thoroughly enjoyed the follies of the Corso, the pelting with sugar-plums, and the masked balls, to the last
of which he went in a nightgown and nightcap, with a lady who knew all his acquaintances; and between the two they
puzzled their friends mightily.
This year and a half may be considered as the time of Faraday's education; it was the period of his life that best
corresponds with the collegiate course of other men who have attained high distinction in the world of thought. But his
University was Europe; his professors the master whom he served, and those illustrious men to whom the renown of
Davy introduced the travellers. It made him personally known, also, to foreign savants, at a time when there was little
intercourse between Great Britain and the Continent; and thus he was associated with the French Academy of Sciences
while still young, his works found a welcome all over Europe, and some of the best representatives of foreign science
became his most intimate friends.
In May 1815, his engagement at the Royal Institution was renewed, with a somewhat higher position and increased
salary, which was again raised in the following year to 100l. per annum. The handwriting in the Laboratory Note-book
changes in September 1815, from the large running letters of Brande to the small neat characters of Faraday, his first
entry having reference to an analysis of "Dutch turf ash," and then soon occur investigations into the nature of substances
bearing what must have been to him the mysterious names of Paligenetic tincture, and Baphe eugenes chruson. It is to
be hoped that the constituents of this golden dye agreed together better than the Greek words of its name.
We can imagine the young philosopher taking a deeper interest in the researches on flame which his master was then

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carrying out, and in the gradual perfection of the safety-lamp that was to bid defiance to the explosive gases of the mine;
this at least is certain, that Davy, in the preface to his celebrated paper on the subject, expresses himself "indebted to
Mr. Michael Faraday for much able assistance," and that the youthful investigator carefully preserved the manuscript
given him to copy.
Part of his duty, in fact, was to copy such papers; and as Sir Humphry had a habit of destroying them, he begged leave
to keep the originals, and in that way collected two large volumes of precious manuscripts.
But there came a change. Hitherto he had been absorbing; now he was to emit. The knowledge which had been a
source of delight to himself must now overflow as a blessing to others: and this in two ways. His first lecture was given
at the City Philosophical Society on January 17, 1816, and in the same year his first paper was published in the
Quarterly Journal of Science. The lecture was on the general properties of matter; the paper was an analysis of some
native caustic lime from Tuscany. Neither was important in itself, but each resembled those little streams which travellers
are taken to look at because they are the sources of mighty rivers, for Faraday became the prince of experimental
lecturers, and his long series of published researches have won for him the highest niche in the temple of science.
When he began to investigate for himself, it could not have been easy to separate his own work from that which he was
expected to do for his master. Hence no small danger of misunderstandings and jealousies; and some of these ugly
attendants on rising fame did actually throw their black shadows over the intercourse between the older and the younger
man of genius. In these earlier years, however, all appears to have been bright; and the following letter, written from
Rome in October 1818, will give a good idea of the assistant's miscellaneous duties, and of the pleasant feelings of
Davy towards him. It may be added that in another letter he is requested to send some dozens of "flies with pale
bodies" to Florence, for Sir Humphry loved fly-fishing as well as philosophy.

"To Mr. Faraday.

"I received the note you were so good as to address to me at Venice; and by a letter from Mr. Hatchett I
find that you have found the parallax of Mr. West's Sirius, and that, as I expected, he is mistaken.
"If when you write to me you will give the 3 per cents. and long annuities, it will be enough.
"I will thank you to put the enclosed letters into the post, except those for Messrs. Morland and Messrs.
Drummond, which perhaps you will be good enough to deliver.
"Mr. Hatchett's letter contained praises of you which were very gratifying to me; and pray believe me there
is no one more interested in your success and welfare than your sincere well-wisher and friend,

"H. Davy.

"Rome."

It must not be supposed, however, that he had any astronomical duties, for the parallax he had found was not that of the
Dog-star, but of a reputed new metal, Sirium, which was resolved in Faraday's hands into iron, nickel, and sulphur. But
the impostor was not to be put down so easily, for he turned up again under the alias of Vestium; but again he was
unable to escape the vigilant eye of the young detective, for one known substance after another was removed from it;
and then, says Faraday, "my Vestium entirely disappeared."
His occupations during this period were multifarious enough. We must picture him to ourselves as a young-looking man
of about thirty years of age, well made, and neat in his dress, his cheerfulness of disposition often breaking out in a short
crispy laugh, but thoughtful enough when something important is to be done. He has to prepare the apparatus for
Brande's lectures, and when the hour has arrived he stands on the right of the Professor, and helps him to produce the
strange transformations of the chemical art. And conjurers, indeed, the two appear in the eyes of the youth on the left,
who waits upon them, then the "laboratory assistant," now the well-known author, Mr. William Bollaert, from whom I
have learnt many details of this period. When not engaged with the lectures, Faraday is manufacturing rare chemicals, or
performing commercial analyses, or giving scientific evidence on trials. One of these was a famous one, arising from the
Imperial Insurance Company resisting the claim of Severn and King, sugar-bakers; and in it appeared all the chemists of
the day, like knights in the lists, on opposite sides, ready to break a lance with each other.
All his spare time Faraday was occupied with original work. Chlorine had a fascination for him, though the yellow
choking gas would get out into the room, and he investigated its combinations with carbon, squeezed it into a liquid, and
applied it successfully as a disinfectant when fatal fever broke out in the Millbank Penitentiary. Iodine too, another of
Davy's elements, was made to join itself to carbon and hydrogen; and naphthaline was tormented with strong mineral
acids. Long, too, he tried to harden steel and prevent its rusting, by alloying it with small quantities of platinum and the
rarer metals; the boy blew the bellows till the crucibles melted, but a few ordinary razors seem to have been the best
results. Far more successful was he in repeating and extending some experiments of Ampère on the mutual action of
magnets and electric currents; and when, after months of work and many ingenious contrivances, the wire began to
move round the magnet, and the magnet round the wire, he himself danced about the revolving metals, his face beaming
with joy—a joy not unmixed with thankful pride—as he exclaimed, "There they go! there they go! we have succeeded
at last." After this discovery he thought himself entitled to a treat, and proposed to his attendant a visit to the theatre.
"Which shall it be?" "Oh, let it be Astley's, to see the horses." So to Astley's they went; but at the pit entrance there was
a crush; a big fellow pressed roughly upon the lad, and Faraday, who could stand no injustice, ordered him to behave
himself, and showed fight in defence of his young companion.

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[18]

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The rising philosopher indulged, too, in other recreations. He had a wonderful velocipede, a progenitor of the modern
bicycle, which often took him of an early morning to Hampstead Hill. There was also his flute; and a small party for the
practice of vocal music once a week at a friend's house. He sang bass correctly, both as to time and tune.
And though the City Philosophical Society was no more, the ardent group of students of nature who used to meet there
were not wholly dispersed. They seem to have carried on their system of mutual improvement, and to have read the
current scientific journals at Mr. Nicol's house till he married, and then alternately at those of Mr. R. H. Solly, Mr.
Ainger, and Mr. Hennel, of Apothecaries' Hall, who came to a tragical end through an explosion of fulminating silver.
Several of them, including Mr. Cornelius Varley, joined the Society of Arts, which at that time had committees of
various sciences, and was very democratic in its management; and, finding that by pulling together they had great
influence, they constituted themselves a "caucus," adopting the American word, and meeting in private. Magrath was
looked upon as a "chair-maker," and Faraday in subsequent years held the office of Chairman of the Committee of
Chemistry, and occasionally he presided at the large meetings of the Society.
During this time (1823) the Athenæum Club was started, not in the present Grecian palace in Pall Mall, but in a private
house in Waterloo Place. Its members were the aristocracy of science, literature, and art, and they made Faraday their
honorary secretary; but after a year he transferred the office to his friend Magrath, who held it for a long period.
Among the various sects into which Christendom is divided, few are less known than the Sandemanians. About a
century and a half ago, when there was little light in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, a pious minister of the name of
John Glas began to preach that the Church should be governed only by the teaching of Christ and His apostles, that its
connection with the State was an error, and that we ought to believe and to practise no more and no less than what we
find from the New Testament that the primitive Church believed and practised. These principles, which sound very
familiar in these days, procured for their asserter much obloquy and a deposition by the Church Courts, in consequence
of which several separate congregations were formed in different parts of Great Britain, especially by Robert
Sandeman, the son-in-law of Mr. Glas, and from him they received their common appellation. In early days they taught
a simpler view of faith than was generally held at that time; it was with them a simple assent of the understanding, but
produced by the Spirit of God, and its virtue depended not on anything mystical in the operation itself, but on the
grandeur and beauty of the things believed. Now, however, there is little to distinguish them in doctrine from other
adherents of the Puritan theology, though they certainly concede a greater deference to their elders, and attach more
importance to the Lord's Supper than is usual among the Puritan Churches. Their form of worship, too, resembles that
of the Presbyterians; but they hold that each congregation should have a plurality of elders, pastors, or bishops, who are
unpaid men; that on every "first day of the week" they are bound to assemble, not only for prayers and preaching, but
also for "breaking of bread," and putting together their weekly offerings; that the love-feast and kiss of charity should
continue to be practised; that "blood and things strangled" are still forbidden as food; and that a disciple of Christ should
not charge interest on loans except in the case of purely business transactions, or lay up wealth for the unknown future,
but rather consider all he possesses as at the service of his poorer brethren, and be ready to perform to them such
offices of kindness as in the early Church were expressed by washing one another's feet.
But what gives the remarkable character to the adherents of this sect is their perfect isolation from all Christian
fellowship outside their own community, and from all external religious influence. They have never made missionary
efforts to win men from the world, and have long ceased to draw to themselves members from other Churches; so they
have rarely the advantage of fresh blood, or fresh views of the meaning of Scripture. They commonly intermarry, and
are expected to "bear one another's burthens;" so the Church has acquired somewhat of the additional character of a
large intertwined family and of a mutual benefit society. This rigid separation from the world, extending now through
three or four generations, has produced a remarkable elevation of moral tone and refinement of manner; and it is said
that no one unacquainted with the inner circle can conceive of the brotherly affection that reigns there, or the extent to
which hospitality and material help is given without any ostentation, and received without any loss of self-respect. The
body is rendered still more seclusive by demanding, not merely unity of spirit among its members, but unanimity of
opinion in every Church transaction. In order to secure this, any dissentient who persists in his opinion after repeated
argument is rejected; the same is also the consequence of neglect of Church duties, as well as of any grave moral
offence: and in such a community excommunication is a serious social ban, and though a penitent may be received back
once, he can never return a second time.
It was in the midst of this little community that Faraday received his earliest religious impressions, and among them he
found his ecclesiastical home till the day of his entrance into the Church above.
Among the elders of the Sandemanian Church in London was Mr. Barnard, a silversmith, of Paternoster Row. The
young philosopher became a visitor at his house, and though he had previously written,—

"What is't that comes in false deceitful guise,
Making dull fools of those that 'fore were wise?

'Tis Love."

—he altered his opinion in the presence of the citizen's third daughter, Sarah, and wrote to her what was certainly not
the letter of a fool:—
"You know me as well or better than I do myself. You know my former prejudices and my present thoughts—you
know my weaknesses, my vanity, my whole mind; you have converted me from one erroneous way, let me hope you

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will attempt to correct what others are wrong.... Again and again I attempt to say what I feel, but I cannot. Let me,
however, claim not to be the selfish being that wishes to bend your affections for his own sake only. In whatever way I
can best minister to your happiness, either by assiduity or by absence, it shall be done. Do not injure me by withdrawing
your friendship, or punish me for aiming to be more than a friend by making me less; and if you cannot grant me more,
leave me what I possess,—but hear me."
The lady hesitated, and went to Margate. There he followed her, and they proceeded together to Dover and
Shakspeare's Cliff, and he returned to London full of happiness and hope. He loved her with all the ardour of his nature,
and in due course, on June 12, 1821, they were married. The bridegroom desired that there should be no bustle or
noise at the wedding, and that the day should not be specially distinguished; but he calls it himself "an event which more
than any other contributed to his happiness and healthful state of mind." As years rolled on the affection between
husband and wife became only deeper and deeper; his bearing towards her proved it, and his letters frequently testify to
it. Doubtless at any time between their marriage and his final illness he might have written to her as he did from
Birmingham, at the time of the British Association:—"After all, there is no pleasure like the tranquil pleasures of home,
and here—even here—the moment I leave the table, I wish I were with you in quiet. Oh! what happiness is ours! My
runs into the world in this way only serve to make me esteem that happiness the more."
He took his bride home to Albemarle Street, and there they spent their wedded life; but until Mr. Barnard's death it was
their custom to go every Saturday to the house of the worthy silversmith, and spend Sunday with him, returning home
usually in the evening of that day. His own father died while he was at Riebau's, but his mother, a grand-looking woman,
lived long afterwards, supported by her son, whom she occasionally visited at the Institution, and of whose growing
reputation she was not a little proud.
With a mind calmed and strengthened by this beautiful domestic life, he continued with greater and greater enthusiasm to
ask questions of Nature, and to interpret her replies to his fellow-men. Just before his marriage he had been appointed
at the Royal Institution superintendent of the house and laboratory, and in February 1825, after a change in the
management of the Institution, he was placed as director in a position of greater responsibility and influence. One of his
first acts in this capacity was to invite the members to a scientific evening in the laboratory; this took place three or four
times in 1825, and in the following years these gatherings were held every week from Feb. 3 to June 9; and though the
labour devolved very much upon Faraday, other philosophers sometimes brought forward discoveries or useful
inventions. Thus commenced those Friday evening meetings which have done so much to popularize the high
achievements of science. Faraday's note-books are still preserved, containing the minutes of the committee-meetings
every Thursday afternoon, the Duke of Somerset chairman, and he secretary; also the record of the Friday evenings
themselves, who lectured, and on what subject, and what was exhibited in the library, till June 1840, when other
arrangements were probably made.
The year 1827 was otherwise fruitful in lectures: in the spring, a course of twelve on chemical manipulation at the
London Institution; after Easter, his first course at Albemarle Street, six lectures on chemical philosophy (he had helped
Professor Brande in 1824);[3] and at Christmas, his desire to convey knowledge, and his love to children, found
expression in a course of six lectures to the boys and girls home for their holidays. These were a great success; indeed,
he himself says they "were just what they ought to have been, both in matter and manner,—but it would not answer to
give an extended course in the same spirit." He continued these juvenile lectures during nineteen years. The notes for
courses of lectures were written in school copy-books, and sometimes he appends a general remark about the course,
not always so favourable as the one given above. Thus he writes, "The eight lectures on the operations of the
laboratory, April 1828, were not to my mind." Of the course of twelve in the spring of 1827, he says he "found matter
enough in the notes for at least seventeen."
Up to 1833 Faraday was bringing the forces of nature in subjection to man on a salary of only 100l. per annum, with
house, coals, and candles, as the funds of the Institution would not at that time afford more; but among the sedate
habitúes of the place was a tall, jovial gentleman, who lounged to the lectures in his old-fashioned blue coat and brass
buttons, grey smalls, and white stockings, who was a munificent friend in need. This was John Fuller, a member of
Parliament. He founded a Professorship of Chemistry with an endowment that brings in nearly 100l. a year, and gave
the first appointment to Faraday for life. When the Institution became richer, his income was increased; and when, on
account of the infirmities of age, he could no longer investigate, lecture, or keep accounts, the managers insisted on his
still retaining in name his official connection with the place, with his salary and his residence there. Nor indeed could they
well have acted otherwise; for though the Royal Institution afforded in the first instance a congenial soil for the budding
powers of Faraday, his growth soon became its strength; and eventually the blooming of his genius, and the fruit it bore,
were the ornament and glory of the Institution.
It will be asked, Was this 100l. or 200l. per annum the sole income of Faraday? No; in early days he did commercial
analyses, and other professional work, which paid far better than pure science. In 1830 his gains from this source
amounted to 1,000l., and in 1831 to considerably more; they might easily have been increased, but at that time he made
one of his most remarkable discoveries—the evolution of electricity from magnetism,[4]—and there seemed to lie open
before him the solution of the problem how to make one force exhibit at will the phenomena of magnetism or of
common or voltaic electricity. And then he had to face another problem—his own mental force might be turned either to
the acquisition of a fortune, or to the following up of those great discoveries; it would not do both: which should he
relinquish? The choice was deliberately made: Nature revealed to him more and more of her secrets, but his
professional gains sank in 1832 to 155l. 9s., and during no subsequent year did they amount even to that.

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Still his work was not entirely confined to his favourite studies. In a letter to Lord Auckland, long afterwards, he says:
—"I have given up, for the last ten years or more, all professional occupation, and voluntarily resigned a large income
that I might pursue in some degree my own objects of research. But in doing this I have always, as a good subject, held
myself ready to assist the Government if still in my power, not for pay; for, except in one instance (and then only for the
sake of the person joined with me), I refused to take it. I have the honour and pleasure of applications, and that very
recently, from the Admiralty, the Ordnance, the Home Office, the Woods and Forests, and other departments, all of
which I have replied to, and will reply to as long as strength is left me." He had declined the Professorship of Chemistry
at the London University—now University College,—but in 1829 he accepted a lectureship at the Royal Academy,
Woolwich, and held it for about twenty years. In 1836 he became scientific adviser to the Trinity House, and his letter
to the Deputy Master also shows his feelings in reference to such employment:—"You have left the title and the sum in
pencil. These I look at mainly as regards the character of the appointment; you will believe me to be sincere in this,
when you remember my indifference to your proposition as a matter...